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 of independence then raging and the different interests at stake made the command one of considerable difficulty and delicacy, and the tact which Hardy displayed won him the approval not only of the admiralty, but of the public. He did not return to England till the beginning of 1824. On 27 May 1825 he became a rear-admiral, and in December 1826, with his flag in the Wellesley, escorted the expeditionary force to Lisbon. On his return he took command of an experimental squadron, with his flag on board the Sibylle, and afterwards on board the Pyramus. By a curious coincidence, on 21 Oct. 1827 he struck his flag, nor was he employed again at sea. In November 1830 he joined the board of admiralty as first sea lord under Sir James Graham, and on 13 Sept. 1831 was nominated to the dignity of a G.C.B. In April 1834 he was appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital, the king sanctioning the appointment on the express understanding that in the event of a war he should return to active service. The rest of his life, spent in this peaceful retirement, was devoted to the interests of the pensioners under his care, and many improvements were made in the regulations respecting them, one of the most characteristic of which was the abolishing the yellow coat with red sleeves, which was worn as a punishment for being drunk on a Sunday, and which Hardy considered degrading to an old sailor, and out of all proportion to the offence. He became a vice-admiral on 10 Jan. 1837, and died 20 Sept. 1839. His remains were buried in the mausoleum of the hospital old cemetery, where, notwithstanding recent alterations, they still remain. His widow, with three daughters, survived him; but having no male issue the baronetcy became extinct. His portrait, the gift of Lady Hardy, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, and there is also a monument to his memory in the hospital chapel. A memorial pillar has been erected on the crest of the Black Down, above Portisham, visible from the sea.  HARDY, WILLIAM (1807–1887), archivist, younger brother of Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy [q. v.], was born in the island of Jamaica on 6 July 1807, and came to England at the same time as his brother. He was educated at Fotheringhay and afterwards at Boulogne. In February 1823 he obtained an appointment at the Tower of London, under Lysons, similar to that which his brother had obtained in 1819. Seven years later he was offered and accepted the post of keeper of the records of the duchy of Lancaster. In 1839 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His salary at the duchy was small, but he was permitted to accept private work connected with antiquarian, legal, and genealogical inquiries, and it was in performing such work that he chiefly made his name. Though consulted in a great number of disputes as to foreshore fishery or common rights, he was perhaps best known in connection with applications made to the House of Lords for the restoration of peerages in abeyance.

While at the duchy of Lancaster he was also busily engaged in bringing the valuable muniments of that department into something like con suitable order. In this work he had made considerable progress, when in 1868 the queen decided to present the duchy records to the nation, and incorporate them with the public archives. He was then transferred to the Record Office and appointed an assistant-keeper in that department. In this, capacity he continued the work of arranging and calendaring the duchy muniments, and the result of his labours appeared in the successive reports issued by the deputy-keeper. In 1878, on the death of his brother, the master of the rolls, Sir George Jessel, offered him the post of deputy-keeper, which he accepted and held for eight years, resigning, on account of failing health, on 27 Jan. 1886. He was placed on the Historical MSS. Commission on 12 July 1878, and knighted at Osborne on 31 Dec. 1883.

During his tenure of office as deputy-keeper he drew up, for the approval of the master of the rolls, a scheme for reorganising the department under his charge. This received the sanction of the treasury and was carried into effect. He was also instrumental in starting on its labours the commission for the destruction of valueless documents, which has already done good work by disposing of a mass of useless parchment, thus affording better and safer accommodation for what is really worthy of preservation.

Besides the calendars to the duchy of Lancaster records, he compiled, in 1845, a volume entitled 'Charters of Duchy of Lan- caster,' in which he published the most important documents relative to the formation of that duchy, and prefixed to it an historical introduction. He edited for the Rolls Series of chronicles and memorials the first volumes of the 'Recueil des Croniques et Anchiennes Istories de la Grant Bretaigne a present nomme Engleterre, par Jehan de Waurin.' In 1840 he married at Lewisham Church, 